1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a continuous laundry machine in the form of a tunnel batch washer of modular construction in which each module includes a rotatably supported drum with all of the drums being driven from a common shaft in an oscillatory manner during one cycle and then being driven in a unidirectional manner to transfer the batch or load from one module to another with a unique transfer chute being provided to transfer the load from one module to a successive module during unidirectional rotation.
2. Description of Relevant Art
Continuous batch washers are being used extensively with various structures being utilized to transfer batches from one compartment or module of the machine to another. Such devices include oscillatory rotation of the drums and transfer of the load from one drum to another by conveying structures with transfer being effected by unidirectional rotation of the drums in some instances and in other structures, a screw-type transfer device or a modified spiral device is employed. The following list of patents are illustrative of the relevant art in this field:
______________________________________ U.S.A. 649,152 2,300,690 3,406,543 1,464,722 2,978,229 3,509,744 2,056,803 3,103,802 3,550,406 2,057,815 1,603,802 2,112,848 3,336,768 BRITISH 514,001 1,187,859 1,501,652 1,028,709 1,501,651 FRENCH 1,383,502 1,541,157 GERMAN 867,685 1,159,895 1,585,890 872,931 1,194,362 1,849,718 882,391 1,243,630 1,916,615 885,389 1,267,655 1,925,512 894,686 1,277,795 1,948,045 923,183 1,288,051 7,005,241 926,067 1,290,909 1,049,817 1,460,822 ______________________________________